The second one has possibilities. It's not good enough for LOD0 though. Needs a lot more detail.

I can't say much about the first one except that you're probably way over the number of polys needed for LOD3. LOD3 should be about 20-30 polys maximum.

Title: low poly models
Post by: Water on May 15, 2007, 12:24:44 PM

With lo poly its all about moving vertices around to give an interesting shape. Use whatever tool to add them where needed, then move them.

And it's little wonder you have trouble developing modeling skills. You keep jumping from one piece of software to another. Stick with one for a while, get good with it - not "look I can use it", rather "look what I can create with it"

After you have got past the interface (3 or 4 so far?) all you need to learn are the tools that give you the shapes you want.

I wouldn't worry too much about poly count while your still learning. Try searching for sites like 3d palace, 3d cafe etc or "max tutorials". There are loads on the web. From your pictures you look to have a fairly good grasp of it though.

Title: low poly models
Post by: takashi on May 15, 2007, 11:49:57 PM

actualy, i worry about poly count because if it goes too high it means i either wasted polys with booleans or greebled too much.

Title: low poly models
Post by: VA [TI] on May 17, 2007, 11:47:03 PM

Quote from: takashi;71947

ive been working with max 7 for a while now.

@kara: that first one is only 29 polys

Err, I count 56 triangles visible from that view alone. :p

As for the designs, well to be honest, really there's nothing to the first one at all. It has no form or anything that suggests it's anything more than a low poly shape. Add a lot more in the way of features and greebles to it and *maybe* that will change, but I doubt it. There's just too little to go on there.

The second is a lot better in that regard. As has already been mentioned, it needs a lot more detail as well, but the shape is there. I'd recommend you focus on improving that one for now to get some practice in that regard.

And at this stage, you should pretty much ignore polycount alltogether and focus on learning to effectively use the tools available. Considering the media VP fighters have a couple of thousand polys, unless you're grossly wasteful, these early designs are not going to have too many polys. ;)

Title: low poly models
Post by: takashi on May 18, 2007, 02:17:37 AM

not counting triangulation of course (i never use it)

Title: low poly models
Post by: VA [TI] on May 18, 2007, 03:44:01 AM

3DS Max will triangulate everything by default anyway so you are already using it and have no choice in the matter. FS2's HTL engine will do the same.Besides that I can _see_ more than 29 surfaces in that view alone.

Anyway, pay more attention to the rest of that post - the important part. :p

actualy, i worry about poly count because if it goes too high it means i either wasted polys with booleans or greebled too much.

The poly count can be easily reduced once you arrive at a decent mesh. Trust me, don't worry about that just yet.

Quote from: 'VA [TI

;72266']3DS Max will triangulate everything by default anyway so you are already using it and have no choice in the matter. FS2's HTL engine will do the same.Besides that I can _see_ more than 29 surfaces in that view alone.

Anyway, pay more attention to the rest of that post - the important part. :p

Um, no it doesn't. Unless I've missed something ? :) Takashi is probably using the Max Face counter set to count polys, as apposed to triangles. :doubtful:

Title: low poly models
Post by: VA [TI] on May 18, 2007, 10:51:54 AM

Quote from: CamInHead;72287

Um, no it doesn't. Unless I've missed something ? :) Takashi is probably using the Max Face counter set to count polys, as apposed to triangles. :doubtful:

As far as I'm aware, it'll convert everything to triangles internally. I don't think you can export it un-triangulated either.

Of course it does.GFX cards can only render triangles. (Don't trhow some weird exceptions at me now... ;) )

Nope. Infact if you use NURMS mesh smooth for the Very/Ultra-High-Poly-Stuff you want to avoid putting in triangles otherwise it produces a nasty "pinched" effect. Nothing worse than finding a bloody triangle that you just can't get shot of. ;) See the corner of this 944:

http://premium1.uploadit.org/magatsu1//944_01.JPG

I don't know about exporting though. I don't know much about exporting so I was never able to figure out the errors I was getting with Max->Pof :doubtful:

Title: low poly models
Post by: VA [TI] on May 19, 2007, 11:23:35 AM

That's a problem with the control mesh, but in the smooth result what you're seeing is still all triangles. Just very very tiny triangles. ;)

Title: low poly models
Post by: takashi on May 19, 2007, 11:01:31 PM

say, VA, how do you view the hiearchy without selecting it? i have a very small invisible submodel (most likely a stray edge) thats screwing up my scene, but icant find it unless i select all, in which it says "2 objects selected". i want to delete this so i can normaly proceed with my model.

Title: low poly models
Post by: VA [TI] on May 20, 2007, 05:04:09 AM

As I said in the other thread, if you'd stuck with blender I could have told you for sure. As is, I'm guessing. :p